1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure is directed to phased array antennas, and more particularly to phased array antenna aperture plate with lattice transformation.
2. Related Art
An example Phased array antenna is comprised of an aperture plate, multiple antenna elements, element control circuits, a signal distribution network, signal control circuitry, a power supply and a mechanical support structure. The aperture plate is comprised of a plurality of holes that serve as waveguide transitions from an antenna element to free-space. The total gain, effective isotropic radiated power (“EIRP”) (with a transmit antenna), maximum grating-lobe-freescan angle, and side lobe level requirements of the antenna are directly related to the number of antenna elements in the antenna, individual antenna element spacing and performance of the antenna elements and element electronics. In many applications, thousands of independent element/control circuits are used to achieve a desired antenna performance.
A phased array antenna typically uses independent electronic packages for the antenna elements and control circuits that are intercoupled through a series of external connectors. As the beam scan angle increases, the spacing between the phased array antenna elements decreases. The spacing between the phased array antenna elements also decreases when the frequency increases. As the spacing of the antenna elements decreases, it becomes increasingly difficult to physically configure the control electronics relative to the tight antenna element spacing. This can affect the performance of the antenna and/or increase its cost, size and complexity. Consequently, the performance of a phased array antenna becomes limited by the need to tightly package and interconnect the antenna elements and the element electronics associated therewith a plurality of external connectors.
Additionally, as the antenna element spacing is reduced due to either frequency scaling or increase in scan angle, the corresponding element electronics does not necessarily scale down in size.
Therefore, there is need for a structure and method for producing low cost phased array antenna.